The Village and the Outside World in Golden Age Castile: Mobility and Migration in Everyday Rural Life, (Paperback)

This book, based on a vast range of documentary and secondary sources, shatters the disproven but persistent myth of the closed immobile village with sedentary populations in the early modern period. Professor Vassberg demonstrates that even in traditionalist Spain, villagers were highly migratory, and had frequent contact with the outside world. Because of its rich accounts about ordinary people making decisions in everyday life, the book is fascinating reading. Topics range from carpenters to mule trains, and from humble peasants to titled aristocrats. Although the focus is on Spain, the book will be useful for comparison with other European countries and with Latin America.